My lovely friend Briana Herr has tagged me in her Writing Habits Blogger Tag. This means that I’m forced to reveal to the world the things that make me tick! Things like what faces I make while writing and what coffee I drink! How scandalous!

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Where do you go write and what does it look like?

Most often I write in my room. I have a basement room with walls painted lavender, and my bed is right next to my desk. I have a large TV with a Roku that plays wonderful music, either from Pandora or from Youtube. I sit at my desk, in my rickety rolly-chair that needs to have blankets piled on it for it to be comfortable, and I write. This is the only way I am productive.

Sometimes I write in my bed, which is very comfortable, but I rarely get many words out because I tend to fall asleep.

Snacks or drinks?

Both. I prefer soda to be honest with you. Pepsi if I can afford it, if not Sam’s Cola. I love munching on salted roasted peanuts while writing, or chips. Sometimes I get chips and salsa for while I’m writing. Other times I’ll make a bowl of ramen or some leftovers. Basically, it depends on how hungry I am.

Do you like to write with noise or in total silence?

This depends on my ADD brain. Because of my ADD, I have sensitivity to stimulae. This means that too much of anything becomes distracting. This means that if I have music going, I get distracted. However, on the flipside, if I sit in silence, I become anxious. So I have to find that sweet spot between the two.

I’d love to say that there are rules like “no lyrics” or “drums only” that works for me, but nothing ever works the same two days in a row. So I don’t really have any kind of preference, I just want to find balance.

Paper or computer?

Computer, all the way. I can’t sit still long enough to write on paper anymore.

what do you do before you start to write?

I put the kids to sleep, and then gather up soda, my computer, and anything else I’ve left upstairs. Then I take it all downstairs and sit in my uncomfy chair. After that, I whine a bit to my friend Briana, and after that, I get to writing. Often I manage somewhere between 200-2000 words.

What time of day do you like to write?

I like to write in the late evening. I can’t do early mornings because I have to care for the children as soon as they get up, and I can’t write during the day because there’s too much to do.

If you’re curious, here’s the first two paragraphs of the article, for your perusal.

To begin with, I’m not normally a mystery author. To be specific, when I was younger, I only ever wrote fantasy novels, or romance. Now, however, I’m trying my hand at mystery novels, which means quite a bit of strife. I have a natural instinct when it comes to fantasy, so I find it easy to fall into. With Romance, I have my years as a fanfiction writer and fandom roleplayer to fall back on, which can both enhance and detract from my writing. (No one likes reading author’s notes, I’ve since learned.)

I came to mystery as a genre because I love the tense atmosphere. Maybe it’s less mystery and more suspense that I enjoy. But recently, I’ve found that I want a challenge. And the best way to challenge yourself is to write something you’ve never in a million years written before. But how can you write something you’ve never written before? How can you make sure that you don’t slip back into writing what you know? And worst of all, how do you manage to make it a GOOD manuscript when you know nothing about your genre?